Editorial Staff

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: Will plans to re-open hurt civil liberties?; COVID-19 model skeptic; SCOTUS returns!; New podcast, HubWonk; 5 Tips for online learning & more!

/0 Comments/in , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Pioneer staff share their top picks for COVID-19 stories highlighting useful resources, best practices, and questions we should be asking our public and private sector leaders. We hope you are staying safe, and we welcome your thoughts; you can always reach out to us via email:  pioneer@pioneerinstitute.org.

Our Top Picks for COVID-19 Pandemic News:

Jim Stergios, Executive Director: This piece by Ezra Klein is a brief overview of the four plans thus far released to re-open the economy. All involve trade-offs, especially related to civil liberties. The big takeaway is that if we want to avoid significant curbs into our liberties, the country needs to go from 100,000-150,000 tests a day (the current rate) to somewhere closer to 20 million daily tests.

William Smith, Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences: Meet a skeptic of the COVID-19 models, former NY Times reporter Alex Berenson.

Also from Bill: Gilead released data on patients who had received compassionate use of remdesivir. While 68% of patients improved while on the drug, this was not a randomized clinical trial, so there was no group of placebo patients who could be compared to those receiving the drug. Gilead is expected to release actual clinical trial data by the end of the month.

Saylor Scheller, Development Coordinator: The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will be hearing oral arguments via teleconference for a number of cases postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, beginning May 4th.

Our Picks for Public & Private Sector Best Practices:

Micaela Dawson, Communications Director: Pioneer’s new podcast, HubWonk, debuted this week, with co-hosts Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault interviewing Dr. Andrew Le, co-founder & CEO of Buoy Health, which is partnering with Massachusetts to help residents self-diagnose COVID-19 symptoms.

Jamie Gass, Education Policy Director: Online learning pioneer Julie Young of ASU Prep Digital co-authored a new report for Pioneer that offers guidance to state leaders seeking to make the transition to online learning. And, here’s a good story on different approaches states are taking to help students left hanging as a result of COVID-19 earn a high school diploma.

Also from Jamie: An excellent piece from Heritage’s Lindsey Burke on the lack of preparedness of students and citizens in their knowledge of the Constitution and America’s Founding Documents. This kind of civic background knowledge is vital as state and federal government authority and civil liberties often clash in times of national crisis, including during the two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, 9/11, and COVID-19.

Questions for Our Public & Private Sector Leaders:

Barbara Anthony, Senior Fellow in Healthcare raises grave concerns about Massachusetts’ COVID-19 care standards in a new report released today.

Greg Sullivan, Research Director: When the COVID-19 emergency mercifully ends, some businesses may decide to put their newly-gained telecommuting experience to continued use.

Charlie Chieppo, Senior Fellow, has appeared on WGBH’s “Greater Boston,” Boston Neighborhood Network, and Bloomberg Bay State to discuss his recent report co-authored with Greg Sullivan, warning about the impact of skyrocketing unemployment on the state budget.

Andrew Mikula, Peters Fellow: Will the COVID-19-related economic recession cause a spike in crime? Social distancing makes it harder to burglarize homes, engage in gang activity, or commit petty theft. But it could make domestic violence and online black-market operations more prevalent in the short-term. In his blog, Andrew analyzes crime rates of past recesssions.

Do YOU have interesting questions and/or articles to share with us? Please email us, or message us through our social media channels below!

Get Our COVID-19 News, Tips & Resources!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related Content

Homeschooling Expert Kerry McDonald on Harvard Law Professor Controversy & COVID

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kerry McDonald, a homeschooling expert and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, on the major lessons we all should be learning from this educational moment, now that COVID has turned most of America’s 50 million schoolchildren and their families into "homeschoolers."

32.9 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 26.2 percent of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims over the past nine weeks.

0 Comments
/
Data released today by the U.S. Department of the shows that 33.0 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 26.2 percent of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims since the COVID-19 unemployment surge began nine weeks ago.

Study Finds Pandemic Likely to Negatively Impact Biopharmaceutical Sector

Contrary to conventional wisdom that says the coronavirus pandemic will generally benefit biopharmaceutical companies, a new Pioneer Institute study finds many companies will emerge from the pandemic commercially weaker, dealing with delays in new product launches and with fewer resources to invest in research and development.

“Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction”: 8 K-12 Science Resources During COVID-19

0 Comments
/
The fourth in Pioneer’s ongoing series of blogs on curricular resources for parents, families, and teachers during COVID-19 focuses on science education.

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: The race for a vaccine; Unemployment Tracker; Reopening reactions; Grading BPS on remote learning; Holyoke Soldiers’ Home understaffing; & more!

0 Comments
/
Pioneer staff share their top picks for COVID-19 stories highlighting useful resources, best practices, and questions we should be asking our public and private sector leaders.

In The Era Of COVID-19, Mass. Needs To Get Long-Term Care Right

0 Comments
/
This op-ed originally appeared in WGBH News. In much of the…

Hubwonk Ep. 6: COVID-19 and Commerce: Main Street’s Concerns with Governor Baker’s Course

0 Comments
/
In this episode of Hubwonk, Host Joe Selvaggi & Pioneer Research Analyst Rebecca Paxton to get reactions to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s phased reopening, from the leaders of two statewide business organizations, NFIB and Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Study Targets Inadequate Nursing Home Staffing Standards

Standards enforced at the federal and state levels are insufficient to address chronic staffing issues reported by staff and residents’ families at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, making that facility particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new Pioneer Institute research.

Kaya Henderson, Former Chancellor, D.C. Public Schools, on Leading Urban District Reform

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are happy to be joined by Kaya Henderson, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. They discuss the historic reforms Henderson oversaw, including increasing enrollment and improved test scores in an urban district that had been one of the lowest performing in the country.

28.9 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 24.1 percent of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims over the past eight weeks.

0 Comments
/
Data released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Workforce Development show that 28.9 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 24.1 percent  of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims over the past eight weeks.

Time to follow the science, not fear

Over the past two months, we have all learned a great deal about COVID-19 and the efficacy of - and the new challenges created by - our policy responses. Pioneer Institute believes it is time to shift to a more thoughtful, science-based footing in our approach to COVID-19 policymaking. The following are principles for state and local public officials to consider as we move forward.

Where in Massachusetts is being hit hardest by unemployment due to COVID-19?

Pioneer’s new tool, called “COVID Unemployment Tracker,” provides an interactive look at how economic shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting jobs and lives across the state of Massachusetts.

How will COVID-19 affect the 2020 Census in Massachusetts?

0 Comments
/
On April 1, 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau unveiled a flood of…

Hubwonk Ep. 5: COVID Calling: How answering the tracing phone call will move us forward

0 Comments
/
In this episode, Host Joe Selvaggi and Co-Host Barbara Anthony speak with the heads of Partners in Health Drs. Sheila Davis & John Welch on how they are bringing their expertise battling Ebola in West Africa to defeating the COVID-19 epidemic in Massachusetts. They explore precisely how and why tracing is an essential element in battling the epidemic.

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: Swabbing at home?; Is re-infection real?; Latest unemployment numbers; Can colleges survive?; What does re-opening look like?; How Holyoke happened; Homeschooling summit; Stargazing & more!

0 Comments
/
Pioneer staff share their top picks for COVID-19 stories highlighting useful resources, best practices, and questions we should be asking our public and private sector leaders.

As college students and parents demand robust COVID-19 response, university finances suffer

0 Comments
/
COVID-19 is likely going to put severe pressure on college finances in the coming months due to costly added safety measures, cuts to state funding, and foregone revenue from campus housing, services, and events.

During COVID-19 Outbreak, Compounding Challenges for Special Education Students

0 Comments
/
In Massachusetts, there’s a staunch and persistent negative…

Stargazing: Five Astronomy Resources for Parents, Teachers, and Kids During COVID-19

0 Comments
/
Here are some resources for parents, teachers, and students of all ages. Our hope is to cultivate the curiosity within us, in order to better understand the heavens and stars above us.